NTT America, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and a global network of IP services, today announced the company is helping regional service providers to connect their business and residential customers voice, video and data over the quality, reliability and scope of the NTT Communications Global IP Network, as will […]

Iranian Election Dispute

Since the appearance of the hotly disputed results of Iran’s presidential election arrived on Fri. in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed to have defeated reform applicant Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrations, both pro-government and dissenting, and both calm and violent, have taken place across the land’s capital of Tehran and somewhere else, with that dissent being echoed online. Though Ahmadinejad claimed an overwhelming win, Mousavi and his adherents contest the results, accusing the govt of election fraud.

On Sat, the US govt claimed its refusal of the results and design to “see what the Iranian folks decide.” This week, the state’s ultimate leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requested an official inquiry into election irregularities. “We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran,” asserted Clinton, “but we, like the remainder of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian folks decide.”.

This week, it ran a variety of highly forcing footage of the protests, including some doubtless upsetting and graphic photographs. “Supporters of reform applicant Mir Hossein Mousavi, upset at their recounted loss and claims of citizen crime, took to the streets both peacefully and, in a few cases, violently to vent their frustrations.

Iranian security forces and hardline volunteer army members answered with force and arrests, trying to stamp out the protests – in the meantime, thousands of Iranians who were satisfied with the election end result staged their own victory demonstrations.”. According to reports, the Iranian executive has answered to the disturbance in part by prohibiting the activity of foreign writers.

And since the bulk of Mousavi’s adherents are among the more youthful, more tech-savvy portion of the populace ( Mousavi himself ran a campaign that relied in part on social media ), social media and voter journalism with other types of online reaction have turned into one of the key stories to follow the election.

YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter are among the key resources being employed by folk on the scene to disseminate info about what’s now happening in Tehran. In an article breaking down the parts of online dissent, Computer World’s Ian Paul writes:. “As political tensions increase in Iran, online communities are ramping up their opposition efforts. The Iranian executive continues to limit access to the Web, but many opposition adherents are still able to share stories and info online.

“Today,” he asserts, “I thru a letter that I sent to the Guardian Council have requested that the outcome of this election be void and I see this as the sole way to recover public trust and support in their executive. My recommendation as your public servant is that you continue your rallies in a tranquil and non confrontational manner.

In the Mon. Times Article “Social Networks Spread Iranian Defiance Online,” Brad Stone and Noam Cohen extra detail the web activity supporting Mousavi and in defiance of the reported election results. “On Twitter, reports and links to footage from a relaxed mass march thru Tehran on Mon. , with accounts of street fighting and casualties round the country, became the hottest subject on the service worldwide, according to Twitter’s released stats.

2 Twitter feeds became virtual media offices for the advocates of the number one opposition applicant, Mir Hussein Moussavi. One feed, mousavi1388 ( 1388 is the year in the Persian calendar ), is crammed with reports of protests and exhortations to keep up the fight, in Persian and in British . Mr Moussavi’s fan group on Facebook has swelled to over fifty thousand members, a significant increase since election day. The feeling is that Twitter’s political importance to the circumstances in Iran has become so great the service’s hosting provider NTT postponed a planned service interruption Monday in order that Twitter would remain available as a tool in the discourse.

A urgent network upgrade must be performed to guarantee continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight. However, our network partners at NTT America recognize the job Twitter is at present playing as a critical communication tool in Iran. Tonight’s planned upkeep has been rescheduled to tomorrow between 2-3p PST ( 1:30a in Iran ),” stated that a post on the official Twitter blog.

In another very important development, online demonstrators have, in certain quarters, turned to inspiring Web users in the USA and other locations outside Iran to take part in denial of service attacks against pro-government or state-run media internet sites in Iran. A long and awfully concerned Mon.

post on the Foreign Policy blogs by Evgeny Morozov, titled “DDOS attacks on Iran’s web-sites : what a foolish concept. “assembles a lot of links to resources and info on the topic, and questions the sense behind what he appears to consider a very badly judged form of dissent:. “It’s a shame that some Yankee bloggers are participating in this campaign and are even inspiring others to take up their “cyber-arms”. Not only is this irresponsible and possibly illegal, it also injures users in Iran and gives their hard-line regime another excuse to think “foreign intervention” – even though thru computer networks – into Iranian politics.

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